Tag Archives: imaginative play

Summer is here! And with the warm weather, visits to lakes, pools, splash pads and spray grounds become a necessity for kids (and adults) of all ages. While staying cool is definitely in the top five reasons to seek out water play, there are numerous developmental benefits for kids of all ages.

2. Water encourages kids to test new solutions to problems in a safe environment. Observing the filling of dumping buckets teaches kids about cause and effect. Even more, splash play inspires imaginative play, which plays an important role in problem solving.

3. Splish, splash, sieve, dump, spray… While they play, kids are developing their language skills. Conversations between a caregiver and a child as well as peers will help them to learn new words and practice the language they’ve recently developed.

4. Aqua play encourages role play and crucial social skills like cooperation and sharing. Kids learn to take turns going down the slides of the HydraHub1, work together to make the HydroHelix spin and share the space under the FlashFlood and VersoSplash®.

5. You may not realize it, but water playgrounds are a great opportunity for kids to learn basic math and science skills. Interacting with the AquaGather Station introduces kids to physics and mathematics. Even more, spray play can be a chance to practice counting i.e. “How many dumping buckets are splashing you?” or “How many Splash Pack Animals do you see?”

As a parent or caregiver, you can help facilitate these developmental benefits by encouraging kids to stay active, try new things, use their imaginations, describe what they’re doing, ask questions, and count out what they’re seeing as they splish, splash and play.

To learn more about how to design a water playground that ensures a fun and educational experience for the entire family, go here. Then contact Aquatix by Landscape Structures to get started on a splash pad or spray park design today.

It’s important to keep the developmental needs of toddlers and preschoolers in mind when you’re designing playgrounds for your childcare facility or school. Playgrounds for young kids not only help them build their senses, and motor and cognitive skills, but they also teach them about cooperation and social imaginative play.

In 2016, we introduced Smart Play®: Venti™, a smartly designed playstructure that packs 20 exciting activities into its compact size. Today, we’re happy to have Tory Roff, concept designer at Landscape Structures, as our guest blogger discussing how he and the product development team created the newest addition to our Smart Play line of playstructures.

The idea for the Smart Play line of playstructures was more an ethos about playgrounds as a whole… about creating a cohesive play environment. The criteria for this playground solution was a small footprint and budget, but a desire to serve a large population. So, we started with a blank slate without any rules, and asked ourselves how to design an environment that invites a dynamic play experience.

The design started with the Cargo Net and strategically set the height of it so there is room for play underneath, allowing it to work as a trampoline above and it also acts as a hub for the rest of the play space. We built out from there in respect to circuits and routes so there are different ways to engage the whole of the system. Graduated challenge is built into Smart Play: Venti so that kids with a higher skill level can find challenges and still have a way to invent from it.

We spent a lot of time in the model space—virtual and scale models—working out the dimensions of the structure to really understand how every piece could be doing more. In modular playgrounds, a fire pole is always a fire pole. But good design considers what programming is happening around the fire pole so that kids can create another route and link two events as a cohesive experience rather than a series of segmented happenings. And that’s what’s happening with Smart Play: Venti. The Cabin Climber is an interior club house and an exterior ladder. The pods on the Cargo Net are a way-finding option through the structure, but also a place to stop and hang out. The Belt Hammock is a space for lounging, but also an escape route—it’s not big, it’s not obvious, but it is there.

I was able to talk with students at Birchview Elementary School while they played, and they talked about their friend, Michael, who uses a mobility device. They were excited that he can actually use this equipment, and how it’s his favorite on the playground. Because the design is less scripted, there’s less expectation of how a user actually engages it. Smart Play: Venti allows for more natural inclusion through the addition of many access points and a centralized hangout location, which was one of our primary goals during the design process.

There is enough variety of activities in the playstructure so that kids feel like they can fill in the blank however they want. As designers, we had ideas and hopes of how everything would play out. But you have to engage it from a place of humility and know that there isn’t such a thing as intended use. Kids are infinitely more creative than we are, so it’s important that we give them a platform to express that.

Work is underway at playgrounds all around Washington, D.C. The more than 30 playground renovations are part of an initiative of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) known as Play DC. Washington D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray has allocated $35 million to the playground improvement project.

Rosedale Recreation Center (1701 Gales Street NE)

The first of the completed playgrounds, located at Rosedale Recreation Center, celebrated its grand opening in late May. The playground offers a fully inclusive play experience for children and families, and it was designed to mimic many of the monuments located near the National Mall. Façades of the White House, U.S. Capitol, Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument give the playground a truly signature look.

Palisades Recreation Center (5200 Sherrier Place NW)

Another amazing project that’s part of Play DC is at the Palisades Recreation Center. The playground offers a Native American-themed play structure that pays tribute to the Potomac River settlement. And keeping in mind the whole community, planners included the HealthBeat® Outdoor Fitness System for ages 13+. “We opened that playground on July 4,” said Bridget Stesney, chief operating officer at DPR, “and it has been packed every day since!”

Noyes Recreation Center (Franklin Street NE & 10th Street NE)

In July, DPR celebrated playground grand openings at Noyes Recreation Center and Fort Stanton Recreation Center on July 19 and 20, respectively. The Noyes playground was inspired by nature and includes lots of climbing rocks, while two play structures at Fort Stanton offer a fort theme for lots of imaginative play.

Fort Stanton Recreation Center (1812 Erie Street SE)

DPR is hosting grand openings regularly—the next one is happening Monday, Aug. 12, at the Raymond Recreation Center. And when they’re not celebrating grand openings, they’re celebrating ground breakings. The entire DPR team is excited to be able to renovate the playgrounds citywide, and hope that they will become spaces where all generations can come together to be active, have fun and play.

As many of you are aware, all of us at Landscape Structures are focused on providing playgrounds where all children and families can play together. While we’ve always created play experiences that are accessible and age appropriate, in 2010, we began focusing on providing a higher level of inclusive play. That includes providing sensory-stimulating playground components.

To continue our efforts in supporting truly inclusive playgrounds, we’ve introduced three new products–the Color Splash Panel™, Rain Sound Wheel Panel™ and Roller Table™. These products will welcome children of all abilities while developing gross motor skills, encouraging imaginative play and giving them a “just right” amount of sensory stimulation.